2006

A record of civic service

The May 2006 archive gives context to the later bench dedication. Town & Village reported the election of Arthur H. Barnes and Tom Pike as Park Trustees, and identified both as active members of the Gramercy Park Block Association’s advisory board.

A separate profile that month described Barnes’s work in health administration and his community volunteering. His service to the Block Association and his trusteeship were distinct roles, brought together in the neighborhood’s later expression of thanks.

The Block Association’s July 3, 2020 newsletter described the Arthur H. Barnes Corner in the northeast part of Gramercy Park. A friend had dedicated a bench in March to mark Barnes’s birthday. Shrubbery was subsequently planted where the Barnes family’s two benches stood.

The letter identified Barnes as a former Park Trustee and former vice president of the Block Association, and thanked him for years of leadership in the neighborhood. A December report returned to the planting as part of the Trustees’ work that year.

Read more about Gramercy’s civic history.

Two green benches meet at a shaded corner surrounded by shrubs and trees inside Gramercy Park.
Bench seating and surrounding planting in the December 2020 park-care update.
Portrait of Arthur H. Barnes.
Arthur H. Barnes in the May 11, 2006 Town & Village profile.
Sources

Adapted from the distributed July 3 and December 3, 2020 GPBA newsletters.